AAS 197J: Final Reflection Journal

This Final Reflection Journal is due by Monday, Dec.10, 4 p.m., in the mailbox of Glenn Omatsu at the Asian American Studies Center, 3230 Campbell Hall. Please write at least two pages answering the following questions.

The three student facilitators will be using your comments for a report they will prepare to present to the Asian American Studies Faculty Curriculum Committee for continuation of this course in future years, so please think carefully about each of these questions and share your ideas.

1. The expectations of almost all classes at UCLA are for students to master subject matter (e.g., lectures and readings) and then to relate their understanding of these materials to theories and finally to regurgitate this understanding back in the form of tests and papers to instructors. In our class, we’ve gone several steps further. We’ve expected students to not only master subject matter but to creatively apply their understanding through tutorial work at Wilton Place and committee work in our class. How hard or easy has it been to take these new steps in education? Do you think more classes in Asian American Studies and at UCLA should emphasize this approach to learning? Why or why not?

2. Our class was also unusual because it was student-initiated and student-facilitated. Do you think that UCLA should encourage more student-initiated and student-facilitated classes? Why or why not? What recommendations can we develop from our class this semester for future student-initiated and student-facilitated classes, especially relating to class projects and the process involving these projects?

3. One major objective of our class was to encourage UCLA students to develop ways to tap into the wealth of resources available to them on campus and to redirect these resources in service of our communities. How well were students in our class able to accomplish this objective? Moreover, in this period where the gap between rich and poor and the educated and non-educated in society is growing, what are other ways that UCLA students can redirect campus resources in service of urban communities?

4. The original vision of classes in Ethnic Studies, and Asian American Studies, was an interethnic and interracial vision. Thus, early classes focused on the empowerment of students and communities from specific ethnic groups in the context of working with and empowering other communities. However, in recent years, classes in Asian American Studies and other Ethnic Studies programs have begun to focus solely on Asian Americans. In our class this quarter, our students have worked mainly with Latino children and some Asian kids. Should more Asian American Studies classes embrace more of an interethnic, interracial vision of social justice — in both studies and practice? Why or why not?

5. Finally, another major objective of our class was to promote each student’s personal transformation in the context of our work with children and teachers at Wilton Place. This objective of personal transformation is especially important at elite institutions like UCLA, where many students are influenced, consciously or unconsciously, by the prevailing elitist notion of society, including its approach to social change. Evaluate whether through participation in our class your life values or thinking has been changed in any way. Why or why not?